The White Rose

Debts and Love

Despite the courtesy of his host in offering to keep him several days, Guccio left Vienna next morning at dawn, extremely annoyed with himself. He could not forgive himself, that he, a free citizen of Sienna, who on that score alone considered himself the equal of any gentleman on earth, should have allowed himself to be disconcerted by the presence of a monarch. Do what he would, he could never forget that he had been tongue-tied, that his heart had beat too quickly, and that his legs had felt weak, when he found himself in the presence of the Empress of the Germans. And she had not even honored him with a smile. 'After all, she is but a woman like another! What had I to be nervous about?' he kept on repeating to himself with annoyance. Even when he was already far from Austria he was still muttering to himself in this strain.

Having found no companion, as on his previous journey, he was traveling alone, chewing over his discontent both of others and himself. This state of mind continued during the whole of his journey home, becoming even worse as the miles passed.

Since he had not received the reception he had expected at the Imperial Court nor, on his appearance alone, been given the honours due to a prince, he came to the conclusion, as he stepped on to the soil of England once more, that the Germans were barbarians. As for Empress Elizabeth, however unhappy she might be, however contemptibly she might be treated by her husband, it was no more than she deserved. 'Was one to cross the sea at the risk of one's life, only to be given the thanks due to a servant? Those people had a great air, but their manners were not from the heart. They rebuffed the most loyal devotion. They need feel no astonishment if they were so little liked and so often betrayed.'

Upon these very same roads a month ago, he had thought of himself as an ambassador and a royal lover. Now Guccio began to understand that fortune does not smile upon young men as it does in fairy tales. But he would have his revenge. How, or upon whom, he did not yet know, but revenge was what he intended to have.

In the first place, since destiny and the contempt of kings had destined him to be but a Lombard banker, he would be such a banker as had never before been seen. His uncle Tolomei had charged him to return by the branch at Bromley to recover a debt. Very well, the debtors would soon discover the sort of lightning that had struck them!

Journeying by Maidstone, Guccio, who always had to be playing a part to himself, had become the implacable creditor. Beside him the Jew of Venice, who in the legend demanded a pound of flesh for a pound of gold, would have seemed positively tender-hearted.

Thus he arrived at Bromley on the morning of the feast of Saint Hugh. The branch of the Tolomei bank occupied a building near the church, on the town square built on the side of a hill.

Guccio hustled the employees of the bank, demanded to see the account-books and rated everyone. What on earth was the chief clerk thinking about? Had he, Guccio Baglioni, the nephew of the head of the company, to go out of his way each time a sum of three hundred pounds was due? Primo, who were these squires of Aumale who owed three hundred pounds? He was informed. The father was dead, which Guccio already knew. What more? There were two sons, aged twenty and twenty-two. What did they do? They spent their time hunting. Evidently idlers. There was also a daughter aged sixteen. Certainly ugly, Guccio decided. And what of the mother who ran the house since Lord Aumale's death? They were people of good family, but utterly ruined. How much was their house and land worth?

Fifteen hundred pounds more or less. They had a mill and a hundred peasants on their property.

'And owning all that, do you mean to say you haven't been able to make them pay up?' Guccio cried. 'You'll see that they'll soon do so for me.' Where did the Provost live? At Greenwich? Very well. What was his name? De la Marck? Good. If they hadn't paid up by tonight, he would go and see the Provost and have their property seized. That was all there was to it!